The history of La Blusa
starts in 1988 with an idea of Henk de Kat from Delft, the Netherlands. Henk
was already been busy some time with the discovery of the cajun
and zydeco
roots music from the southern parts of the USA. Artists like Clifton Chenier,
Rockin' Dobsie and Queen Ida were making music Henk was very attracted to.

Henk decided to approach
some Delft musicians to form a band. After an experimental period with several
different musicians, in 1989 the first La Blusa was in the pipeline.

As was usual for every
starting band in those days, a demo tape ( audiocassette ) was produced. Already
in the beginning, not only traditional cajun songs were covered, but their
own compositions emerged. Here is an example from the first La Blusa audio
tape : Tee
Fee.

Henk de Kat devoted himself
to get the band on the road. A lot of promotional material was sent around.
And all the work was not in vain, gigs began to come in. Apparently people
appreciated the sound and appearance of the cajun and zydeco music. In an
astonishing tempo the requests for gigs had increased so much, that the band
was on the road almost every weekend. And the reactions to the live performances
were overwhelming. So, the band came up with the idea to publish their music
on a quality audio carrier to sell at gigs. And subsequently in 1990 the in
house CD "Dance on" was released. Listen to the title
song of the CD.

The CD was not only sold
at gigs, but was also sent to radio stations and booking agencies. And from
that point on, the attention for La Blusa came into a rapids. The requests
for performances became more interesting. Not only was a tour along festivals,
clubs and bars in the Netherlands carried out, but also gigs across the border
in Germany and Belgium were performed.

At the end of 1993, while
La Blusa was preparing for a new CD, Aart de Bruin left the band. A quest
for a suited successor was started. Through the grapevine we heard that a
saxophone player from Wassenaar was available. Wouter Kiers was invited to
our rehearsal cellar to jam a bit with the band, and it was soon clear that
La Blusa wanted this talented musician to join the group. There was also a
little time pressure, because studio time was already reserved for February
1994 in the Fendal Sound studios and rehearsals for the recording sessions
had to start. With Wouter on sax that went very well.

Earlier in 1993 La Blusa
had been approached by the artist agency buro 3WF. They layed out a plan to
make a new album, and according to them, a record company had already been
found to release the CD. La Blusa agreed to set apart a substantial amount
of money from gigs to finance, in advance, the preparation and recording of
the material. The recording sessions were a very inspiring activity. Click
here for an impression. Good studio, good songs ( example
), good sound, nice people and a lot of humor. But the CD never came out.
All there was at the end was a very expensive demo.

Was it naivety? Was it
excessive eagerness? Was it inattention ? . . . . . The result was that the
disappointment had it's impact on the band. Still the ongoing playing season
was continued and even a TV
performance was done. The season was finished with a city park tour through
Belgium, and in August the band went on summer holidays.

After the summer Holidays
the band got together to review the situation. In that meeting Henk de Kat
and Leo Nijenhuis intimated that they saw no future for the band. The rest
of the band however had a different view. They wanted to keep La Blusa alive.
That meant, that the remaining members of the band had to initiate a quest
to find capable substitutes for Henk and Leo. And after a thorough search
they found Geert Verhaar ( accordeon, ex Les Charmeurs ) and Nick Hall ( bass
) willing to join the band.

Keeping La Blusa on the
road turned out to be a good choice. Gigs kept coming in and in a surprisingly
short time the band became again an oiled swinging machine. With the new line
up of the band the sound shifted a little direction rock.

In 1990 the Dutch band
"Captain Gumbo" had the one and only cajun hit in The Netherlands
with the song "Allons à Lafayette". This created a wave of
enthusiasm for the cajun and zydeco music. When La Blusa started as band they
could benefit and also ride the wave. After a couple of years however the
peak of enthusiasm for the cajun and zydeco music was over. And that was the
situation in which the "new" La Blusa was placed. But because the
band name was already settled, the offer for performances did not dry. What
followed was a couple of years of nice touring through the country along bars,
parties and festivals. Legendary became the "after gig party" whereby
Geert and Wouter, after the band was packed to go home, unpacked their accordeon
and sax again and began playing popular tunes to finish of the night. In those
days the band often only arrived back home as the birds began to whistle in
the morning. From that period there is not much audio or video coverage, but
as an impression the following photo
video was made, supported by a track from the CD "2 Dance On"
: Come on.

After about 2 years Nick
decided to leave the band. He had other plans in life. With Jan Pardon a very
capable successor was found. In 1998
the in house CD "2 Dance on" was released. The CD was send around
to podia, record companies and TV and radio for promotional purposes. Striking
was that especially the reactions from regional broadcasters was positive.
Even the band was approached by TV West to make a video
clip of a song from the CD. The track "Tequilla Sunrise" eventually
reached the 6th place in their top ten, between artists like Anouk, Golden
Earring en Billy the Kid.

By
some dissension in the band, Geert Verhaar left the band in 1999. The band
however still did gigs after Geert left the band and tried to fill the musical
gap with enthusiasm (no replacement) or session musicians ( guitarists, keyboard
players). But that was not the solution : the sound was gone. Replacing
the accordeon by another (or no) instrument appeared to be no option. The
accordeon was essential for the typical La Blusa sound.

So
again the band was faced with the fact that an accordeon player had to be
found. After a while the band overheard
in the rumor circuit that an accordeon player from Nieuwegein was available.
Contact with Ron was quickly organized and he was invited to join a rehearsal
evening. At first the band was surprised by the instruments Ron brought with
him. They were no regular accordeons, but as he called it, "trekzak"
(squeezebox). A kind of accordeon whereby pull or pushing, under one knob
a different pitch is heard. Also the instrument is diatonic ; contains only
the scale of one key (like a bluesharp mouth organ), instead of a piano for
example, which has all the tones. But the unexpected input of this instrument
did not spoil the fun. On the contrary, it became a very inspiring musical
evening. The skill and groove of Ron on the squeezebox convinced the band
to ask him to join La Blusa.

Ron quickly found his way
within La Blusa. And not surprisingly the sound of the band changed positively
towards more rock and groove. It was then decided to release an upgrade of
the CD "2 Dance On" ,
called "2 Dance On
Remix". Two typical "Ron" tracks were added and on the other
tracks the accordeon of Ron was heard. Also an upgrade for the album was the
collaboration of Onno Kuipers (ex Louisiana Radio), a virtuoso accordeon player.
Now there was a CD, which did La Blusa right. In this
clip you see a battle between the squeezebox (Ron on the left) and the
accordeon (Onno on the right). The recording is not that well, but still nice
to see.

2000 further was a fairly
normal year in terms of performances. Except our tour through Tsjechie in
August. A tour where beforehand a lot was promised to us, but little came
true. Nevertheless the band had a great time over there. Still some very special
gigs were executed and there was a lot of laughter. Very particular was our
contribution to the (in Tsjechie well known) Trutnov
"Open air music festival" In this
clip an impression is shown.

The next 2 years passed
without much particularities. The band was still on the role with about 40
performances a year. However ; Wouter became more and more popular in the
music scene and was asked a lot for all kinds of sessions outside La Blusa.
Also he had started some individual musical projects. All in all his private
carrier as a sax player began to interfere with his permanent membership within
La Blusa. Beginning 2002 it was decided in mutual agreement, that La Blusa
would proceed as a four mans band with, when suited, sometimes contribution
of Wouter. It was a big challenge for the four guys that remained, because
Wouter had always put a big stamp on the sound and presentation of the group.
And in the 9 years he was there he grew into a hard to replace part of the
band. But the remaining members picked up the towel and began to do the gigs
with 4. And that worked pretty well. For the sound, more burden was placed
on the shoulders of Ron, but Ron carried it resplendently. What remained was
: four guys who still brought a tight and swinging piece of music.

In 2003 La Blusa began
to feel the need again to compile a new album. In their rehearsal studio cellar
in Delft new material was composed and adaptions of older material and traditional's
were made and recorded. It became an album on which the band continued scanning
the boundaries of the "Cajun and Zydeco" music. At a presentation
party on January 25th 2004, the CD "Louisianergy" was released.
As an experiment a homemade video
clip of the trigger of the CD was made. For the rest it was a rather normal
year for the band. Nice gigs, good CD sales.

In 2005 a quieter period
began for La Blusa. Still some nice performances were done. Special was our
contribution to "Blues
on the river" that year. But one way or another the spirit vanished
a little, maybe not so strange for a band that was already traveling through
the country for over 16 years. Members of the band began to participate in
other music projects. La Blusa went into a kind of hibernation.

This period lasted about
until the end of 2008. Then surprisingly the phone began to ring again, and
La Blusa was invited for some gigs. After some rehearsals the concerts were
done and it felt very familiar, as if the band has had no pause at all. At
the invitation of Henk Arts, a music friend of Jan, in October a little weekend
trip to the Auvergne in France was done. He had arranged 2 concerts over there.
During this weekend the boys of the band realized that they actually had missed
the ambience and playing pleasure of the band. It was then decided to wake
La Blusa from hibernation. Places to play were contacted, and within a rather
short time the band was on the road again. A new band photo was made to confirm
the new start.

The photo shows a good
reflection of the new enthusiasm of the band. In the spring of 2010 saxophonist
Tom Moerenhout came to strengthen the group. The boys of the band still had
the need to enrich the sound of the band with Sax. In the meantime again the
thought for a new CD album surfaced. And after several evenings of talking
about the idea, the band come up with a surprising concept. Take a series
of classic hits from past and present, and adapt them to the La Blusa sound.
This idea was tested during live performances and what the band already quietly
hoped, was confirmed. The combination of well known songs with the steady
sound of La Blusa worked very well. Every gig became a party, with a strong
participation of the public. So this was the way to go. And the preparations
for the new album were started. In peace and quiet the songs were arranged,
rehearsed and digitally recorded on a simple lab top audio set up (like home
recording). In the autumn of 2012 the recordings were ready and mixed. The
whole project was executed under own management.

On January 20th 2013 the
CD "Dance the night away" was released with a party in "Plan
B" Delft.

Normally the story could
end here. The band plays on, sells CD's , hold a party to celebrate their
25th anniversary and lives happily ever after. But there is still a little
tail to the story.

Ronald heard from a music
friend in Delft, that there was a record company in Friesland that was looking
for new original material. After checking their site, the band became enthusiastic
about the company. And so on a Friday in September 2013 a copy of our latest
CD album with an accompanying letter was sent to Marista in Dronrijp. Surprisingly,
already after the weekend, on Monday morning the band was contacted by Marista
with the story that they wanted to do business. And on Friday that week, a
meeting already took place, in which the details of the collaboration were
discussed. They not only want to release the CD as such, but they would like
to compile an album with tracks from our "cover" CD combined with
earlier work from La Blusa. In mutual agreement 6 tracks from the
CD "Dance the night away" and 6 tracks from the La Blusa
archives were chosen to fill the album. All the tracks were remixed and professionally
mastered. For the promotion a video
clip was made.

The CD "GOLD / 25 years"
was presented on the 13th of April 2014 in "Stairway to Heaven" in Utrecht.
Supporting act was expertly filled in by our valued good musical friend Polle
Eduard from Delft. Thanks again :-) 2014 was a good year playing with a lot of
promotional activities.

Due to a few differences
of opinion in the summer of 2014 our sax player Tom Moerenhout left the band.
At the end of 2014 we found a very suitable successor on sax in the person of
Leo Roeleveld.

The last couple of
years we found our way to a lot of pubs and places; where the audience
showed a lot of appreciation for our approach of the cajun & zydeco music.
In 2017 the urge to produce new material started to itch again. We started
to record and arrange new and traditional tracks. We took our time. But in
the spring of 2019 a new CD is expected.